Compressed air in slaughterhouse triggers illness in floor workers

ST. PAUL, Minn - On the slaughterhouse floor at Quality Pork Processors Inc. is an area known as the "head table," but not because it is the place of honor.

It is where workers cut up pigs' heads and then shoot compressed air into the skulls until the brains come spilling out.

But now the grisly practice has come under suspicion from health authorities.

Over eight months from last December through July, 11 workers at the plant in Austin, Minn. - all of them employed at the head table - developed numbness, tingling or other neurological symptoms, and some scientists suspect inhaled airborne brain matter may have somehow triggered the illnesses.

The use of compressed air to remove pig brains was suspended at Quality Pork earlier this week while authorities try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Five of the workers have been diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP, a rare immune disorder that attacks the nerves and produces tingling, numbness and weakness in the arms and legs, sometimes causing lasting damage.

State health officials said there is no evidence the public is at risk - either from those afflicted or from any food leaving the plant, which supplies Hormel Foods Inc.

The working theory from two Mayo Clinic neurologists treating the workers: Exposure to pig brain tissue scattered by the compressed air triggered the illnesses.

Minnesota Health Department spokesman Doug Schultz said the agency is looking into the theory but has not ruled out other causes.

Quality Pork has not said what it does with the pork brains.

Sold fresh and in cans, pork brains are fried and eaten in sandwiches or gravy in some parts of the country.